Alpha Android
by KatyRebel413
Summary: A Sequel to "Signless and Equius". Even after escaping execution, Signless is NOT safe. With Lord English on a rampage, no one is. With the help of the Dancestors, the Alpha Humans, and a special little Android, join Signless and Equius as they train to take down the biggest threat they've ever faced. Applicable trigger warnings at the beginning of each chapter.
1. Waking Up

_**TRIGGER WARNINGS: **_**language, blood, injury, VRISKA, discrimination based on blood color, mentioned character death, victim shaming**

_**~On LOTAK~**_

_**~Dirk's POV~**_

I hear screaming over the music I was blasting. Turning the music down, I make my way from my workroom to Hal's room. By the time I reach my little android's room, the screaming has stopped. Knocking on the door, I say, "Hal? You okay, kid?" When there's no answer, I open the door just a little. I don't see him in his bed, where he should have been napping. "Hal?" I ask again.

I see movement out of the corner of my eye. A blur of red light bolting from behind the bed, across the room, and into the vent. I curse under my breath as I rush to try and catch him before he gets lost in the air vents. Again. This happened earlier this week. By the time I finally found him that time, he was curled up in a ball and crying. Times like this, when he gets so scared that everything startles him, are when I regret programing him with emotions.

My phone rings, pulling me from my thoughts. "Hey, I'm kinda busy," I immediately say when I put the phone to my ear.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jake says, sounding a bit disappointed. "Do you mind my asking what's going on?"

I sigh. "Hal had another nightmare. He's in the vents again."

"He's an android, Dirk. How on Earth does he have nightmares?"

I stick my head in the air vent a little way down the hall as I respond, "I programed him to learn and have emotions and an active imagination." He's not there so I continue down the hall to the next opening in the vent. "Combine that and you get an android with dreams. Some of those dreams are bound to be a bit scary. The fact that he's the emotional equivalent of a _five-year-old_ only makes it worse when he has bad dreams."

I hear whimpering coming from the living room as Jake says, "You never did explain why you programed him like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like a child. Why exactly did you program him to be like a child?"

I shrug, almost to the living room, "It just felt right, okay. I'll come by your planet later." I don't wait for a response before hanging up. "Hal?" I call as I flip on the light in the living room.

"GO AWAY!" he shouts, fear in his voice, from where he's curled up in the corner with a kitchen knife.

"Hal, kid, it's me," I calmly say, putting my hands up. He just looks at me skeptically. "Can you put the knife down?" He shakes his head. "Why not?"

With synthetic tears in his glowing red eyes, he stutters, "I-I don't wa-wanna die. P-please don't ki-kill me, daddy."

Normally I like hearing him call me that, but right now he's worrying me. "Is that what you have nightmares about?" He nods his head, dropping the knife in favor of wiping the tears from his eyes. "Hal, I'm not going to hurt you," I say as I pick him up and cradle him in my arms. "You know that, right?" He doesn't say anything, just snuggles closer to me.

I sigh as I carry him back to his room. I tuck him in and sit with him until he falls asleep again. He's been having these nightmares ever since we entered our session. I'll have to talk to him about it later, when he's awake and calmed down a bit. And why did he think I was going to kill him? That's another thing I need to talk to him about.

I wake up to Lady Antebellum's "Bartender" playing on my phone. Hitting answer and putting the call on speaker, I say, "Hey, Rox. You're on speaker and the kid's asleep. What's up?"

"Finally you pick up!" she practically shouts.

I flinch and quickly check to make sure Hal's still asleep before leaving the room. Careful to be as quiet as possible, I close the door hissing, "What part of 'the kid's asleep' did you not fucking understand?!"

"Oops, sorry," she whispers. "How is he, by the way? Jake said that you said lil' Hal's been having nightmares. He's also pissed you've been ghosting him for the last few hours."

"Wait, hours?" I ask, finally looking at a clock. I had put Hal back down to finish his nap at around two. Now it's almost seven. I look down to my phone. Twenty missed calls from Jake, ten from Jane, and this call from Roxy. "Shit. I must've fallen asleep. I'll go see him when Hal wakes up. What were you calling about?"

"Oh yeah. Janey asked me to invite you and Hal to her place. Also, the clown got to your kernelsprite."

"What?"

"Yeah, he put your AR and some of that weird dark blue potion in it. Looks like a Troll and Fefeta looked kinda excited to see him."

I immediately throw on my gas mask and run out the door. I'm greeted by a red and white ghost-like troll, flexing like there's no tomorrow. I feel the color drain from my face when he practically begs me to touch his muscles. I know that Hal's an android, but he can still learn and he's still basically my kid. This thing is NOT something I want anywhere near him.

I immediately run back inside, remove my mask, and say, "Roxy, how the fuck did this happen?" The only thing on the other end of the call is laughter. "Damn it, Roxy! This isn't funny! I can't have that _thing_ anywhere near Hal," I whisper yell.

"Oh, he's not that bad," she laughs.

"Not that bad? He's flexing like there's no tomorrow and begging me to touch his muscles! You know Hal's basically five. Would you want something like that near a five-year-old, Rox?"

"No?"

"Right!" I take a deep calming breath before asking, "Do you know it's name? I didn't stick around long enough to ask."

"I didn't catch it either, but Fefeta says he's called Arquius."

_**~On the Meteor~**_

_**~Signless' POV~**_

I wake up in a dark room, on a soft bed, with two warm bodies on either side of me. I look to my right and see Psiioniic, sound asleep, with his head rested on the pillow next to mine. I smile and look to my left. There, I find Karkat curled up against my side. He, too, is sound asleep, with his head rested on my shoulder. I look around the room and spot Sollux passed out with his head rested on a small desk in the corner, a red and blue husktop open in front of him. The screen is dark aside from several lines of green text that I can't read from here.

"Signless?" Equius whispers. I turn my head to see him rise from the chair he had been sleeping in in the corner of the room. "How are you feeling?" he asks as he makes his way over to me.

"Sore," I whisper back, trying my best not to wake the other three in the room. I'd sit up but my sleeping mate and descendant have me pinned. "What happened? I thought I got shot."

He looks sad. "You were," he says quietly, picking up a small, clear jar from the nightstand. In the jar is a metallic blue shard and a small amount of mutant red blood. "When the arrow hit your rib, this piece broke off. It tore through your lung and got stuck behind it. Feferi was able to heal the tear in your lung and most of your other injuries." He sets the jar back on the small table. "She was unable to heal the burns on your wrists, the incision on your side, and the lacerations on your back."

I look at him, completely confused, asking, "What incision?"

He seems to find fiddling with the hem of his shirt very interesting as he explains, "We couldn't remove the metal without surgery. Feferi and Rose kept you alive and sedated while I located and removed the shard."

He looks almost ashamed as he briefly glances up to me. "Equius," I calmly whisper.

"Are you mad at me?" he asks.

"What?" I say a little louder than I intended. "Equius, no. I'm not mad at you, my child." He looks back up to me, surprise in his eyes. "You saved me. Why would I be mad at you for that?"

"He's paranoid as all hell," Karkat mumbles, his bright red eyes fluttering open. He sits up, freeing my almost numb left arm, and turns his attention to Sollux. "Sol, wake up." No response. "Bro, I will throw perfectly generic object at you." He gets a quiet snore in response.

Karkat growls in annoyance. He holds his hand up and a green cube drops into his palm. Putting as much force as he can into the throw, he chucks the small object at Psii's descendant. "FUCK!" Sollux shouts when the cube hits his shoulder. Unintentionally, he wakes Psii, whom instinctively shoots a bolt of psionic energy at the wall near Sollux's head. "FUCK!" the young psionic shouts again, staring wide eyed at the singed spot on the wall, a few inches from him.

I ignore the pain, and Equius and Karkat telling me not to, as I sit up and pull Psii into my arms. "It's okay, Psii. You're okay," I whisper. He calms slightly, but still searches the room for any threat.

After a moment, he turns his attention fully to me. "Are you okay?" he asks.

"I'm okay," I reply, putting some emphasis behind my words. I'm already tired of people asking me if I'm okay.

There's a knock on the door before Dolorosa and Disciple come in, followed closely by Nepeta and Aradia. Disciple squeals. Nepeta squeals. Seconds later, both of them tackle me in a hug. It hurts but I'm laughing anyways. My whole family's here and _safe_.

"Guys," Aradia says from the door, "Equius is too nice to say it, but all four of you are in the way. He needs to check that wound on Signless' side."

"And change the bandages," Equius mumbles. Reluctantly, Disciple and Nepeta move off the bed, allowing me to sit back up. Disciple pulls up a chair and sits patiently, probably waiting to hug me again. Karkat refuses to move, so Nepeta takes him by the arm and drags him away. She says something about going to find Kanaya before she runs out the door, dragging a complaining Karkat along with her.

"You know I'm not moving, right" Psii says from his spot beside me. He wraps his arms around my shoulders protectively.

Equius sits on the edge of the bed and starts unwrapping the bandages around my chest, saying, "You don't have to. As long as I have access to this injury, you're fine right where you are." Disciple flinches when the last of the bandages are pulled away.

"C-can't you feel that?" she asks, a worried look in her eyes.

I glance down and am shocked to see a large cut with purple stitches a couple of inches above my grub scar. As he starts to spread a medicated ointment over the large wound, Equius speaks up, "It shouldn't hurt very much, if at all. I gave you a very strong pain killer. It won't wear off for another few hours. I'll give you another dose before then, though. Really, the only pain I expect you to be feeling right now is from the burns on your wrists and a few pulled muscles in your back and shoulders." He looks up at me through his bangs for a second before returning to his work. "Unfortunately, the only thing we have here that is theoretically strong enough to completely numb those injuries is toxic to Trolls."

"It's perfectly fine for Humans, though," Sollux adds. "Which is why we don't just throw it all out."

As Equius begins to rebandage my injury, a rather annoying voice calls from the door, "Eeeeeeeequius. Hey neighbor, long time no see." A cerulean blooded girl in a short white dress makes her way over like she owns the place and leans on Equius.

Not too sure of what to do, I just watch as Equius takes a deep breath and says, "Go away, Vriska."

"I haven't seen you in almost a full human year," she whines, poking Equius' cheek, "and you're telling me to go away? That's not cool, Equius. Not cool at all. I thought we were friends, seeing as there are only three of us blue bloods on this rock," Equius freezes, looking as annoyed as I am, "and one of them is _teal_. I mean, that's _practically_ green."

He finishes with the bandages before turning towards Vriska and lightly shoving her away from him. "First of all, while blood color _really_ doesn't matter, that teal blood you're referring to is your sister. Have at least an ounce of respect for that fact. Second of all, DON'T touch me. You do not have my permission to touch me. I do not _want_ you to touch me. Don't. _Touch_. Me. And lastly, we most certainly are NOT friends. When you killed Tavros, Gamzee went into rage mode!"

"That was pretty cool, wasn't it?" she says, a sadistic smile on her face.

"I-it most certainly, w-was not," he stutters, hands flickering and shaking. I lean over and hug him, silently assuring him that he's okay.

Laughing, Vriska says, "'W-was'? What, do you have a stutter like that idiot Ampora now?"

"Leave Eri out of this!" Sollux snaps.

"And I thought you didn't want anyone to touch you."

"Signless is an exception, he's my guardian." She looks both angry and sad at hearing that. "And you're part of the reason Nepeta and I got hurt in the first place! You killing Tavros sent Gamzee into rage mode." He tilts his head up a little and lightly touches the scar on his neck. "This is just one of the scars he gave me when he was like that, before Aradia sent me to Signless."

She laughs, "Yeah, I heard what happened to you. Aren't you supposed to be the _stroooooooongest_ of us all?" She laughs again, moving closer to him. She rests an arm on his shoulder, twirling a lock of his hair around a finger on her other hand. "Why didn't you fight back? Oh, I know. You wanted it. It's in your blood to be dominated by someone higher than you."

"You have GOT to be kidding me!" Dave snaps from the door. "Vriska, I swear to god, I will fucking stab you if you don't stop victim shaming." He pulls her away from Equius. "You know as well as the rest of us how powerful Gamzee is. Equius _couldn't_ fight back." He shoves her, hard, towards the door. "Now get out before I send you to the dark ages." She runs, almost scared, out of the room.

A light thump draws everyone's attention back to the spot where Equius has dropped to his knees. Dave gets to him before I can even move, dropping to his knees in front of him. "I-I couldn't f-fight," Equius whispers, arms wrapped tightly around himself. Once again ignoring my own pain, I slide off the bed and pull Equius into my arms. He flinches before realizing I'm the one holding him.

"Shh, my child," I whisper, running my fingers through his hair.

"Hey, Equius," Dave says, catching Equius' attention. "You listen to her and she gets what she wants. She wins." A cocky smile spreads across Dave's face. "Don't give her the satisfaction, okay. You want some advice?" Equius hesitates for a moment before nodding. "When she's around, smile. No matter how much you want to cry or hide or whatever, don't. Not until she's gone. People like her are only ever going to hurt you. Everyone on this rock knows how strong you are, but she's going to push you to your limit. Don't let her find it. Can you do that?"


	2. Bot Fight

**Trigger Warnings: language, minor violence, and minor kismisitude interactions.**

_**~On LOTAK~**_

_**~Dirk's POV~**_

"C'mon Hal," I call through the apartment, "Jane and Roxy are waiting for us." No response. Making my way down the hall, I inform, "We're going to be late. Again." I hear a soft whimper and a crash just before I open his door. The sight that greets me is adorable and hilarious. Hal had gotten tangled in his shirt before falling over into a pile of stuffed animals and action figures. I can't help the laughter that pours out of me as I lean on the doorframe for support.

"Don't laugh!" he snaps, still trying to fix his shirt.

"I'm sorry," I apologize, trying really hard to stop laughing. Once I eventually succeed, I ask, "Are you stuck?"

"Yes."

"You want some help?"

He looks away from me, a small pout on his face. "Yes."

I laugh a little more as I help him get untangled from the dark blue shirt he had chosen. He likes wearing dark colors. When I had asked him about it, he told me that it makes his red markings stand out. "Okay, kid, arms up," I instruct before pulling the shirt over his head and down his torso. He giggles when I scoop him up into my arms. "Ready to go?" I ask as I grab his backpack on the way through the apartment.

"Are we bringing Arquius with us?" he asks.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I said so."

"But _why_ not?"

I look down at him, hoping to find that he's messing with me. Unfortunately, he's not. He really wants Arquius to come with us. I have no idea why he would want to interact with that creep, but he wants to bring him along. I sigh as I stop in the middle of the living room. I sit Hal down on the couch and kneel in front of him. To show that I'm trying to be serious, I take off my shades before asking, "Why do you want him to come with us?"

Hal shrugs. "I thought it would be nice to take him to see Fefeta," he says, sounding a little nervous. He probably thinks he's in trouble. "Was I wrong? Is there a reason he's not allowed to come with us?" He gasps, as if he just realized something, and a look of fear and panic flashes in his eyes. "Is he a bad guy?"

I stop him before he freaks himself out. "No, Hal. He's not a bad guy. And you're right, it would be the nice thing to do to take him to see his friend." I rub the back of my neck, a nervous habit I've had for as long as I can remember. "It's just that I've been getting weird vibes from him since he's been here, and I don't think I fully trust him to be around you." Hal looks confused. "You don't understand anything I just said, do you?"

He shakes his head. "Is there something wrong with Arquius?"

"Have you met him?" He nods. "Did he tell you to touch him?" He looks confused and shakes his head.

"Why would I do that?" a very dejected sounding Arquius inquires from behind me. Startled, I spin around, summoning my katana to my hand. Arquius looks genuinely upset at what I said; drooping ears, sad eyes, and all.

"I don't know, and I don't care," I say evenly, venom in my tone. "What I do know is that if you so much as _look_ at my kid wrong, I will gut. You. Alive. Have I made myself very clear?" He nods. I captalog my katana, pick Hal back up, and motion for Arquius to follow me. "Come on. You weird the hell outta me, but Hal seems to think you're okay." He's frozen in place when I look over my shoulder. "We're going to meet up with everyone." He looks confused. "You wanna go see Fefeta or not?" He perks up at the mention of his friend.

Finally following us, he mutters, "Nepeta."

"Fefeta," Hal corrects as we reach the window that will take us to LOCAH. I roll my eyes as I step through the portal from my apartment and into Jane's living room.

_**~On LOCAH~**_

"Jane," I call, "we're here!"

"We're out on the patio," she calls back. "Can you grab the blue frosting from the kitchen on your way out, please?"

"Gotcha, Janey," I respond as I make my way to the kitchen, situating Hal on my hip as I go. A few cabinets later, and I call back, "Hey, Jane? Where is it?"

She looks confused and a bit flustered as she bursts through the door. Without even acknowledging us, she goes to the cabinet, next to the one I'm holding open, and retrieves a blue tin of frosting. When she spins around to snap at me, though, her face lights up. She ruffles Hal's synthetic white hair, giggling when he pouts. "Come on guys," she giggles, "everyone's waiting outside. You guys are late again."

"I-is Nepeta here?" Arquius nervously inquires.

"Fefeta," Hal corrects.

Seconds later, we hear a small crash. Erisol had dropped a small cooler of ice and is staring at Arquius. The green and white sprite is just staring in disbelief and recognition at Arquius. "Equius?" he asks.

"Equius is here?" Fefeta calls from the door. The second she spots Arquius, she shoves Erisol out of the way and tackles Arquius, squealing, "EQUIHISS!" When Erisol finally shakes his shock, he too rushes to hug my sprite.

I lean over to ask Jane, "What's going on?"

_**~On the Meteor~**_

_**~Equius' POV~**_

I take off another bot's head with a final well-placed roundhouse kick and turn to the next one running at me. It throws a punch. I drop to a crouching position and sweep its legs out from under it. It rolls and swings a low punch. I dodge again by spinning out of the way and slam my elbow into the base of its neck. As it goes down, I once again turn to face an oncoming bot. Only this time, it doesn't reach me. I stand up a little straighter when my fighting bot is crushed like a tin can. I'm both shocked and angry.

"Mind letting me have a go?" Aradia inquires from the door.

I laugh a little. "I don't mind, but the bots might not like being crushed every five seconds. With me they have a chance."

She shakes her head as she makes her way over. "I don't want to fight the bots," she says. The next thing I know, I'm face down on the mat, my right arm twisted behind me and her knee pressed to the center of my back. "I wanna fight you." I teleport out from under her, smiling as I finally notice what she's wearing; dark red yoga pants and one of my shirts, tied up to show off her toned abs. "Like the view?" she jokes as she ties her hair up in a messy bun.

"Maybe," I admit as we drop to a fighting stance.

She makes the first move, a feigned right hook that twists into a left kick. I drop to the mat and roll to my right, her left. When I spring back up, I'm behind her and use this small advantage to land a soft jab to her shoulder. She spins around to face me before I can land another hit, bringing a fist to my gut in the process. I may be pulling my punches, but she sure isn't. Not that I'd expect her to. As she pulls her fist away, I grab her wrist. Her response is to swing a leg up and around, effectively putting her on my shoulders, pulling my arm with her, locking me in a very uncomfortable position. She leans back, pulling me off balance and down to the mat, tangled in her legs and my own arm. I slip out from between her thighs, twisting around as to not dislocate my shoulder, and stand, pulling her to her feet in the process.

We continue like this for almost an hour before she finally pins me. By now we've both got a few bruises and I have a split lip. I tap out when she straddles my stomach and leans over, holding my shoulders in place with her forearm. I could easily get out of this, but I'm tired and her smile is too beautiful to ruin by taking this small victory from her. Don't get me wrong, I'm still angry about the bot that she ruined. There's no way I'll be able to salvage anything from the crushed contraption, aside from maybe some wires, now. But seeing her smile almost makes up for it. Almost.

I'm pulled from my thoughts when she leans down and kisses me roughly. Every ounce of anger I felt about the destroyed bot is shoved to the back of my mind as I'm suddenly hyperaware of _her_. How close she is. The taste of her peppermint lip gloss. The scent of the cherry blossom perfume, that I got for her before we entered the session, that somehow entirely overpowers the scent of the sweat clinging to her flawless skin. The sting of her dull teeth biting my split lip. The small gasp she lets out when I bite back. The feel of her curly hair between my fingers after I pull off the tie holding it up.

A pointedly cleared throat and a rather annoyed, "You two have an audience," breaks us apart in seconds. Aradia scrambles to her feet and takes a few quick steps back while I simply teleport to the other end of the room. I can still taste peppermint on my lips even after we part.

_**~Signless' POV~**_

Sollux laughs at the glare Equius shoots at us. "Why can't anyone on this fucking rock just get a fucking room?!" Karkat snaps. Sollux actually falls over, he's laughing so hard. Karkat turns his attention to his laughing brother before he once again shouts, "You're not exempt from that statement! You and Eridan won't go somewhere else unless someone fucking tells you to!"

"And you're any better?" Aradia retorts as she wipes indigo blood from her mouth.

"What are you talking about?" He crosses his arms over his chest, dawning an air of superiority. "I have yet to get so lost in my own little world with someone that I completely ignore common decency and the boundaries of others, unlike all you fuckwads!"

"Oh, so that little whine over the coms the other day was commonly decent," Sollux teases.

"THAT WAS DAVE'S FAULT!" Karkat practically screeches.

I lean over to Psii and quietly asks, "Should we remind them that we're here?"

"Don't you dare," he whispers back, trying not to laugh himself.

"Signless," Equius calls before teleporting over to us. Then the questions start. "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay."

"Are you sure? You're not in any pain?"

"I'm sure." He's about to ask another question before I stop him. "Equius, I'm fine. I promise. Feferi came by earlier and finished healing most of my injuries. I promise you, my child, I'm okay. Besides, I'm supposed to take care of you. Not the other way around." That last bit I point out as I wipe the blood from his split lip. He flinches slightly at the area around the small wound being touched. "Maybe you should have that looked at," I suggest.

He just blinks at me like he doesn't know what's going on. "You're suggesting I see a healer about a split lip? An injury that will heal on its own in a day or two?" I nod. He blinks again, before looking over to Karkat. Then he looks over to Sollux, whom just busts out laughing again. He then fixes me with a skeptical look. "You're joking, right? That's a joke."

"I'm being completely serious."

Psiioniic's barely contained laughter finally gets the best of him, and he too is on the floor.

"I don't need to see a healer about something as small as a split lip!" Equius snaps, obviously offended that I'd even suggest such a thing.

"Oh, so you _don't_ want me to be overly protective and, as I believe Dave said, go 'full mother hen mode' about every little scrape and bruise that somehow appears on you?" He shakes his head, still a bit surprised by my behavior. "Then don't do that with me. I'm fine, my child. Believe me, if I wasn't, you'd be the second to know and Psii would be losing his mind."

"Anyways!" Sollux speaks up as he gets up off the floor, having finally stopped laughing. "We should get on with this tour before Equius follows Aradia's example and explodes." He earns a glare from his aforementioned brother. "This is the training room slash gym. Yes, it's usually covered in bot parts. No, nobody except for Equius, and sometimes Aradia, actually uses it. All the gym equipment is on that side," he points to a bunch of machines and weights by a mirrored wall. "Feel free to use this room whenever you want."

"The rest of us usually just spar with the Dancestors in the dream bubbles," Karkat says as he leads our, now slightly larger, group down the hall to a small platform, barely large enough to hold all of us. A small flash, and the oddest feeling of being torn apart and put back together, later and we appear in a large room. There are computer stations all along the walls and random piles of stuff around the room. "This is the computer room. Most of us hang out either here, the kitchen, or our own respiteblock."

"Or our significant other's respiteblock," Sollux adds, earning a glare from my Descendant.

"Anyways, we haven't really assigned anyone a respiteblock, other than you. We needed to put you somewhere other than Equius' lab and you weren't exactly conscious to claim a block on your own, like everyone else did. Any questions?" I raise my hand. "This isn't a learning block. You don't need to raise your hand to ask a fucking question. But, what the fuck ever."

"What's a 'dancestor'?" I inquire. "I've never heard the term before." Before he can answer, a bucket collides with his head and he goes down.

"DAVE!" He angrily shouts as he jumps up and kicks the bucket halfway across the room. "I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!"

Said human laughs from his chosen computer station, where he has a small pyramid of upside-down buckets tucked under the desk. "C'mon, Kitkat. Why are you so angry?" he teases.

"'Why am I so angry'?!" Karkat mockingly repeats as he storms over to the blonde human. "Maybe because you threw a fucking _bucket_ at my HEAD! You'd be pissed too if I threw a human condom at your head!"

"No I wouldn't. I'd assume you were," he flicks Karkat's horn, "horny." Karkat just growls at Dave and slaps his hand away.

"Why are you always fucking like this?!" Karkat growls.

Dave stands, quickly kisses Karkat, and starts walking away. "Come by my room before we reach the next dream bubble and find out," he calls over his shoulder.

"FUCK YOU, STRIDER!"

"You could never top me, Babe." And with that, the deathly pale human steps on the platform and disappears, leaving behind a very red Karkat.

Shaking his head, Karkat turns his attention back to us, "What was your question, again?"

"What's a 'dancestor'?" I repeat, trying my best to ignore what I just witnessed.

"The version of you guys from the other main timeline. Any other questions?"

One of the computers dings, drawing everyone's attention. It dings again before Sollux makes his way over to a station covered in papers, motherboards, and a bee plush. "Hey, KK," he calls as he opens a chat window, "Kankri's got a question for you."

Growling, Karkat marches over to Sollux asking, "What the fuck does that asshat want?"

"Uh," he scrolls through a wall of red text, "he wants to know when we'll be reaching the dream bubble and how long we'll be there." The computer dings again before another message appears on the screen. "He says that Signless needs to learn how to fight." He looks up to Karkat. "He's not serious, right?" Silence. "Kankri can't _actually_ expect him to fight."

Equius, whom had rushed to read through the messages says, "Kankri knows he's a pacifist, right? He's not a fighter like us. I've only ever heard him threaten someone _once_, and that was to defend me. A-and he's only ever sparred with me when I asked, if you can count holding boxing pads as sparring."

"I-I need to talk to Jade," Karkat finally stutters.


	3. Gamzee

_**TRIGGER WARNING: language, minor violence, sober Gamzee, mention of rape, Troll blood color theory (because Jegus knows this is going to trigger someone), mentions of slavery**_

_**~On LOCAH~**_

_**~Dirk's POV~**_

"Are you going to tell me what happened now?" I finally get to ask Jane. As much as Arquius creeps me out, it is a bit heartwarming to see how he, Fefeta, and Erisol are curled up off to the side. They're catching up and laughing every now and then. I look over just in time to see Fefeta crawl into Arquius' lap and curl up like a huge cat. Arquius smiles down at her, looking happier than I've ever seen him. "What's their story?"

She looks up from the cake she had been decorating for the last few hours, according to Roxy. "What?"

I nod to the sprites with a lopsided smirk, "What's the story there?"

"Oh," she perks up a bit, "I don't really understand it, but half of Fefeta is half of Arquius' moirail. It's like a best friend only closer, I guess. It's a troll thing. The other half of Fefeta is half of Erisol's moirail. The other half of Erisol is half of Arquius' brother. They have another brother, too. Oh, what was his name?" She taps her chin contemplatively. After a moment of not knowing the name, she turns to the now pile of sprites and asks, "Erisol, Arquius, what's your brother's name again?"

Arquius looks confused before Erisol says, "Karkat. And Arquius was created from a part of Equius from a point before Signless adopted him."

I stare at him in complete confusion. Before I can ask him to clarify, I get the strongest sense of _NO_ I've ever felt. I don't know what's off, but something doesn't feel right. I look around doing a quick head count. Jane's standing beside me. Roxy and Jake are over by the grill arguing about the best way to grill a burger. The sprites are in their cuddle pile off to the side.

"Hal," I breath.

"What?" Jane inquires.

"Where's Hal?" I'm starting to panic a bit when I can't find him. Unlike the rest of us, he can't fly. Jane's house is on a hot air balloon. If he wanders off and falls, he'll fall. I don't even want to think about what might happen if he hits the ground at this height. He could break or get damaged. "Hal?" I call.

There's no response. I go into the house and check every room, calling his name as I go. No response. Running outside, I call his name again. Soon enough, everyone else joins in. Even the sprites are looking for him.

"Found him," Roxy calls from the roof on the other side of the house, near the chimney. "The clown's got him," she continues as Arquius, Jake, and I reach her. Sure enough, the clown is sitting by the chimney with Hal sound asleep in his lap.

_**~Arquius' POV~**_

Gamzee?

Gamzee's HERE?!

I feel fear close its cold grip around my heart as the memories flash across my mind. I can't move. I want to help, but I can't _move_! His eyes are glowing purple, just like that night. I manage to look to my left and see Dirk. He looks so scared, but not for himself. He's afraid for Hal, for his android child. I want to help him.

I look back to Gamzee as he stands. He throws Hal across the roof at us and Dirk rushes to catch him. I'm still frozen in place as Gamzee jumps off the roof.

How can he be here? This isn't even our timeline. HOW IS HE HERE?!

I can't escape him.

I'm torn from my thoughts when Dirk shoves me hard. "What the hell?! Why didn't you go after him?" he snaps.

I'm shaking at this point and can feel tears start to flow down my cheeks. "I-I," I try to apologize.

"You could've caught him!" he shouts again. This time his shove is hard enough that I fall over and hit the rough shingles, scraping the arm I land on bad enough to bleed. I try to get up but am halted by a katana pressed to my throat. "He had Hal. Why didn't you go after him? You're a sprite for fuck's sake! You had a solid chance to CATCH HIM!"

I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. Dirk's angry with me, but I just don't know how to tell him that I was too scared to move.

I'm once again pulled from my thoughts, this time by two gentle sets of arms wrapped protectively around me.

"You have no Idea what Gamzee put him through," Erisol snaps. He lets go of me and moves to put himself between me and Dirk. "You can't expect him to go after that psycho!"

"And why the hell not?!"

Fefeta holds me protectively closer as she hisses, "Are you reely suggesting that he should've chased the bastard that raped him just because you say so?"

Dirk's eyes go wide as he lets her words sink in. Now he's at a loss for words. I turn and hide my face in Fefeta's shoulder as she runs her fingers through my hair. I can't look at him. I didn't want him to know that. I didn't want him to know about my past. I didn't want him to think I was weak.

"I-I'm sorry," I mumble.

"No. Don't apologize," Dirk orders. "You don't get to be sorry for something you had no control over. _I'm_ sorry. I'm so sorry." I glance over to him, confused, and find him on his knees beside me. "You're my sprite. I should've known. I had no right to get mad at you like I did. I had no right to attack you. I'm sorry." I once again don't know what to say, so I just move to cling to him. He doesn't push me away or tell me to get off. He just holds me and says, "How about, the next time that psycho clown shows up, you stay behind me. Okay?" I look up at him, confused. "I'll protect you from him, okay?"

_**~On the Meteor~**_

_**~Signless' POV~**_

I'm starting to get more and more nervous the closer we get to the dream bubble. Equius was right, I'm not a fighter. I hate violence. I only learned to defend myself because Dolorosa insisted when I was little. Karkat's off somewhere messaging one of the Humans. Equius went to his respiteblock. Sollux had taken Psiioniic on the rest of the tour. I have no idea where Dolorosa and Disciple are.

"That is a really bad habit, you know," a feminine voice calls from beside me. Rose giggles at the surprised look on my face as she pulls a chair over. "Nail biting is a sign of anxiety, but it is also classified as self-destructive behavior. Is there anything you would like to talk about?" I hadn't even realized I was biting my nails until she pointed it out.

"I-I'm okay," I say, a little hesitant to discuss my issues with anyone, let alone a girl I only met a few days ago. In an attempt to change the subject, I say, "I've been told I have you to thank for my sutures being purple. I don't mean to be rude, but why? Of all the colors, why _purple_?"

"Purple is my favorite color," she informs, sitting up a little taller. "Also, on my planet, colors have meanings. And before you, like Kanaya, inform me that color had meaning on Alternia as well, let me clarify. Color was not always used to signify a social or political hierarchy. On Earth, color had a different meaning and often times more than one meaning. Purple is a color of power, wisdom, and dignity, just to name a few. Red is the color of blood and fire and is often associated with strength, passion, and determination."

"Not all blood is red," I inform.

She smiles as she summons a sewing needle to her hand. She pricks her finger and holds it up to show me the small bead of red blood that has oozed from the small wound. "All Humans bleed red. The shade, though, can be different. If blood is oxygenated, it will be bright red, like yours is all the time. If it's not oxygenated, it will be dark red, like Aradia's." She wipes the blood from her finger off on the skirt of her dress. "I actually have a theory as to why Trolls have different blood colors and it has nothing to do with a hierarchy. Kanaya and I have even found some evidence that my hypothesis may be valid." She takes a deep breath before pulling up a chart on the computer I've been sitting in front of. "This is a periodic table, a chart of elements." She presses a few keys and some of the elements brighten while the others fade a bit. "These are the elements that can be found in blood. In Humans, the elements are mainly iron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen. In Trolls, the iron is combinable and interchangeable with other metals or minerals that oxidize to be different colors. For example, any of the blue hues. Their blood contains varying levels of silver. The green hues have varying levels of copper."

"That's a very interesting concept," I say. "What about yellow?"

"Yellow was a bit tricky to figure out until Sollux finally let us test his blood. You see, yellow blood is unusual in that it has two metals. The first is iron, like the red hues. The second, though, is gold, which, alongside a fairly supernatural explanation, would account for their psionic abilities due to gold's highly conductive property." I look at her in confusion. "Psionics is a combination of telekinesis and electrical manipulation. It's quite impressive, actually."

"Impressive and dangerous," Psii states as he makes his way over to us. He quickly kisses me before pulling a chair over for himself. "It's also the reason yellow bloods make up almost ninety percent of the enslaved population. That would be almost one hundred percent of us. We're basically living batteries."

"Being _used_ as a living battery does not _make_ you a living battery," Rose states. "You have a gift that most on my planet would give their first born to have, metaphorically speaking." She looks a bit like a child being forced to apologize for something as she clarifies, "I have been informed a few times that my use of Human metaphors can be quite confusing and concerning to the majority of this meteor's population. To my knowledge, nobody has traded their first born for anything in a few centuries. The term actually stems from-"

"Nobody wants a fucking history lesson, Lalonde," Karkat snaps from the platform in the middle of the room. "We're entering the dream bubble. If you don't want your physical body to get hurt, I suggest you go to sleep now. If you don't show up on the meteor, we'll find you. We usually show up on the meteor when we're actually passing through these things though. Unless you have a bad memory from on the meteor, you shouldn't worry too much."

"I should go find Equius," I say slowly, worry seeping into my tone as I rise from my chair. His day terrors take place on this meteor, from what he's told me.

"He's fine," Karkat states.

He's about to say something else when I interrupt, "No, he's not. You just said that we shouldn't worry if we don't have bad memories on the meteor. What about Equius? The most traumatic event in his life occurred in a lab down the hall. I've seen him hesitate to just walk past the door. He shouldn't be _alone_ if there's even a _chance_ he could relive the experience that almost killed him." I'm not even trying to hide the small amount of panic replacing the worry in my voice.

"Are you going to let me fucking explain?" he snaps. "Or are you going to keep freaking out? Because if you think I'm going to stand here and listen to you freak the hell out about something we already have covered you have another fucking thing coming. I'm not going to fight with you about this." I motion for him to continue. "I _know_ what happened to him and what could happen if he were to have to relive that again. That's why Terezi's with him. She's our Seer of Mind. That means she can guide him away from his memory and straight into the dream bubble. Believe it or not, I get it. You're worried about him. Well, guess what. So am I! That's why precautions are in place."

"I'd still rather be with him in case something happens."

_**~Equius' POV~**_

I glance over to the clock on the wall again as Terezi continues to explain some plan Karkat came up with. Honestly, I don't care. I'm terrified to go to sleep in a dream bubble. Feferi explained to me that there's a risk of me waking up in the dream bubble and reliving what Gamzee did to me. She said that it would be like actually reliving it since we're passing through the bubble, instead of just dreaming it like I've been doing for the last ten and a half months.

"Are you even listening to me?" Terezi snaps, pulling my attention back to her. I must look, or smell, as scared as I feel, because her anger at being ignored melts to sympathy. "I'll do my best to get you to the dream bubble, but you have to meet me halfway." She sits in front of me on my bed. "You've got to listen to me, Equius. If you tune me out, I can't help you." I bite my lip and look down to my hoofbeast plush in my lap.

"I'm scared," I confess, tears in my eyes. There's no point in hiding my emotions from someone who can read my mind. "I'd rather risk actually getting hurt, than go to sleep in a dream bubble."

A knock pulls my attention to the door as Signless steps into my room. I don't even hesitate to jump up and run into his arms. "Hey, Equius, what's wrong?"

"I don't want to do this," I mumble as tears start to flow freely down my cheeks. "I don't want to risk going through that again."

"You only risk that if you don't listen to me," Terezi snaps, causing me to flinch at the sudden shouting.

"How about we _not_ shout," Signless calmly, yet sternly, orders. "Okay?" Terezi sneers but agrees as Signless guides me back to my bed. He tucks a lock of hair behind my ear before saying, "You know that I would love nothing more than for you to never go through that again. But I also don't want you to get hurt. Karkat told me the plan and that Terezi can help."

"That's what I've been trying to tell him," Terezi cuts in, "but he's too wrapped up in fear to listen." She kneels in front of me and takes my hand. "If you get caught up in the memory, I _can't_ pull you out. You'll be on your own. Your mind is nothing but fear right now and you will get stuck if that doesn't change before you go to sleep." Her hands move up for her fingers to lightly press against my temples. "You need to remember that it's not real. Tavros is keeping Gamzee distracted on the other side of the meteor until everyone's in, so no version of him you see during your entry memory is real."

"But-"

"No 'buts'. Just go to sleep," she shouts again, causing me to flinch again.

"What did I say about shouting?" Signless inquires authoritatively. He holds up a hand, halting her argument. "Please don't argue with me. Believe me, you won't win." He turns his attention to me before continuing. "Equius, you have to go to sleep. I know you don't want to, but you have to. If you want, I'll stay right here with you the whole time."

"Promise?" I ask.

He presses his forehead to mine and replies, "I promise. I'll be right here beside you."

"I'm still scared," I mumble, looking away from Signless.

"That's okay."

"No it's not," Terezi comments from where she's sitting on my desk. Signless glares warningly at her, most likely taking full advantage of her telepathic abilities to reprimand her negative attitude. She huffs before going back to tying knots in a length of rope she keeps in her sylladex. Knot tying is one of the ways she calms herself. Most people find it disturbing, especially after they see how fast she can tie a noose.

"I'm starting to think _you're_ part of the reason he's so scared and not just past experience," he says, earning an evil looking smirk from our resident Libra. Shaking his head, Signless turns his attention back to me. "Lay down," he instructs, all annoyance at Terezi's antics gone from his tone. He pulls the blanket up over me as I do as I'm told. I turn over onto my side when he lays down beside me and curl up against him. A sense of calm washes over me as he hums a lullaby and runs his fingers through my hair. I'm so calm in my guardian's arms that I'm finally able to close my eyes.

When I open my eyes, Signless is gone and I'm in the lab where Gamzee raped me almost a year ago.


	4. AUTHOR'S NOTE

I'm sorry for not updating sooner. I've been busy with personal issues that I'm now getting help with. Due to the direction I intend for this story to go in, I'll be switching over to AO3. Here's the link: /works/27380257


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